In the spring of 1944, the town of La Madeleine was occupied by the 3rd company of the Grenadier-Regiment 919 (709. Infanterie Division), commanded by the Oberleutnant Matz. The village houses the Wn 7 strongpoint (also known as Wn 105), which consists of several machine guns positions and houses Oberleutnant Matz command post. In 1944, La Madeleine is located on the only road parallel to the beach and is the link between two departmental roads (D67 and D913).
On the beach, at the place called La Grande Dune, the Germans installed the strongpoint Wn 5 (also known as Wn 104). The latter is placed under the authority of the Leutnant Yahnke belonging also to the 3rd company of Grenadier-Regiment 919. This strongpoint defends the access to the road leading to the village of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont. Protected by an anti-tank wall on which is constructed a casemate for 50 mm gun, the Wn 5 consists of two other 50 mm guns, a 47 mm anti-tank gun, a French tank turret FT 17 of 37 mm, For 50 mm mortar, three machine-gun burials and numerous shelters and ammunition bunkers. The entire site is protected by an extensive network of mines and barbed wire.
To the south of La Madeleine, behind the Wn 5, the Germans built another strongpoint, coded Wn 4 (also known as Wn 103) but which was not operational at the time of the landing. However, the Germans use it to protect themselves during the Allied bombing.
According to plans originally planned, the Allies plan to land their troops north-east of La Madeleine, on the area called “Utah Beach”. Utah beach is divided into two sub-sectors: “Tare Green” to the north and “Uncle Red” to the south. But on June 6, 1944, strong currents deviated the boats 2,500 meters to the south. On D-Day, the Americans land east of La Madeleine, opposite Wn 5. Their right flank faces the axis of the 913 departmental road. The first wave reaching Normandy at 6:30 am consists of 20 landing craft carrying the first elements of the 8th Infantry Regiment commanded by Colonel Francis F. Fainter. Companies B and C land on Tare Green, companies E and F on Uncle Red. Ten minutes later, amphibious tanks of the 70th Tank Battalion (4th Infantry Division), led by Lieutenant-Colonel John C. Welborn, landed to destroy the resistance points along the beach. The C Company of the 8th Infantry Regiment commanded by Captain Robert Crisson mounted the assault of Wn 5 and took it without difficulty. The engineers of the 1st Engineer Special Brigade under the orders of General James E. Wharton immediately set to work to clear the beach obstacles, thus facilitating the continuation of the landing operations.
B Company of the 8th Infantry Regiment, commanded by Lieutenant Gail Lee, crosses the anti-tank wall and the dunes at 9 o’clock and heads inland for the German positions at Wn 7. The US soldiers are supported by the 70th Tank Battalion tanks commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel John C. Welborn. However, the aerial bombardments and shots of the Allied navy deeply disorganized the opposing defense and the men of the Oberleutnant Matz are not able to offer special resistance.
The Americans seized La Madeleine in the middle of the morning and then moved inland.
The term D-Day is used by the Armed Forces to refer to the beginning of an operation. The ‘D’ stands for ‘Day’, meaning it’s actually short for ‘Day-Day’ (which is nowhere near as catchy).
Before the allied attack in June 1944 there would have been many D-Days, however it was so iconic that it came to be used solely when referring to the beginning of Operation Overlord.
D-Day 77
Watch a livestream of our commemoration at the NMA, including the unveiling of the British Normandy Memorial.
In addition to those from the UK, D-day forces included sailors, soldiers, and airmen from the USA, Canada, Australia, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland and others.
3. Even the Allied Forces couldn't beat the weather
The D-Day invasion was actually planned for the 5 June, however, in true British fashion, the weather was too bad for the ships to set sail. It was therefore postponed until the day after.
4. Hitler had been preparing
The D-Day landings weren’t a simple matter of invading a series of beaches. They involved breaching Hitler’s Atlantic Wall – a series of ‘impenetrable’ defences stretching 1,670 miles from Norway to Spain.
Much of this wall is still intact. Concrete turret defences, anti-landing obstacles and more can still be found all across the coast.
The Axis actually considered Normandy to be one of the least likely places for the Allies to attack. It had one of the furthest crossing distances from the UK, and no port.
This is precisely why they chose to invade there. They invented and constructed two artificial harbours to solve the port problem, and transported 7,000 tonnes of vehicles and goods over them each day.
6. Equipment had to be specially invented
As the invasion was the first of its kind, there was no existing equipment with which to carry it out.
Not only were the Mulberry Harbours invented, so were the iconic landing crafts. These had a ramp that dropped down into the sea, meaning troops didn’t have to scramble over the side to get out.
7. The South of England was transformed
The jump-off point for the attack was on the South coast of England, and the bottom half of the country was transformed into one large army camp in preparation. Civilian and diplomatic travel was restricted, and journalists were constantly monitored.
8. Fake news played a big role
It was impossible to hide the coming attack from the German intelligence. The allies therefore ran operations to confuse them on when, and where, it would take place.
They leaked fake plans, set up fake camps and sent fake coded radio messages. On the morning of the 6 June, the Allied forces bombed Calais to give the illusion they were readying for an attack.
The French Resistance then cut telephone lines to stop news of the invasion reaching the German High Command. German intelligence wasn’t sure whether the attack was real even as it was taking place!
9. Landing wasn't the first step
The first part of the invasion was conducted by air.
British and American air-borne divisions landed behind enemy lines, capturing the Caen Canal Bridge - later renamed Pegasus Bridge - to stop German reinforcements. Capturing the bridge was no small task, and re-enactments now pay homage to the paratroopers on special commemorative occasions.
10. The news reached Anne Frank in the annex
Listening on a secret radio, Anne Frank recounts there was “great commotion in the Secret Annexe!” upon their hearing about the attack.
“Hope is revived within us”, she wrote, “It gives us fresh courage, and makes us strong again”.
Sadly, Anne’s hiding place would be found by the Nazis before that liberation she dreamed of could take place.
I love the adventure stories with twisted plots, mysteries, puzzles. That is why I love the stories created by Dan Brown and his major character Professor Robert Langdon who was very well played by Tom Hanks in the series of successful movies. Moreover, in my travel adventures I managed to visit most of the countries, places, museums, etc, and even CERN, which are described in the books and movies. And when I watch the movies I travel back in time together with Professor Langdon.
So, today I invite you to solve great mysteries of Leonardo, Illuminati, and Dante. It’s time to refresh your knowledge of history and arts. Welcome aboard!
Jacques Saunière, a Louvre curator, is pursued through the Grand Gallery by an albino Catholic monk named Silas, who demands the location of the Priory’s “keystone” to find and destroy the Holy Grail. Saunière gives him a false lead and is murdered. The police find his body posed like Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man. Police captain Bezu Fache has his lieutenant, Jérôme Collet, summon American symbologist Robert Langdon, who is in Paris for a lecture on the interpretation of symbols, to examine Saunière’s body.
Langdon is shown the body and a secret message, readable only by blacklight. It contains an out-of-order Fibonacci sequence. Sophie Neveu, a police cryptographer and Saunière’s granddaughter, tells Langdon that Fache planted a tracker on him after finding the words, “P.S. Find Robert Langdon” at the end of Saunière’s secret message. Fache believes that Langdon murdered Saunière. Sophie throws away the tracker, distracting the police while they sneak around the Louvre, finding more clues in Leonardo da Vinci’s works. Langdon deduces that Saunière was the grand master of the Priory of Sion. And our adventure begins.
We meet Professor Robert Langdon for the first time during his lecture. He uses Sony laptop for his presentation.
In one of the next scenes of the movie we can clearly see the van with Bosch logo. Same is for the famous French water – Badoit. We can see it in a bucket full of ice.
When Robert Langdon and Sophie Neveu (Audrey Tautou) come to the bank to retrieve the cryptex, we can see how KUKA robot picks the right box that belonged to Jacques Saunière. When the bank employee helps the main characters to pass the police, we can get a glimpse of his Rolex watch.
At Sir Leigh Teabing’s (Ian McKellen) house our guests learn more about The Last Supper painting secrets. Their host is also a fan of Sony, so we may see various TV sets and displays in the house. While enjoying their evening tea, we can as well see Heinz there, of course.
When Robert Langdon and Sophie look for a tomb in London, they borrow a Sony Ericsson smartphone to search for more information.
In the final scene of the movie we see that Robert lives in Ritz hotel in Paris, and from there he starts his evening walk to follow the Arago medallions and come to the Louvre.
The Catholic Church mourns the sudden death of Pope Pius XVI, and prepares for the papal conclave to elect his successor in Vatican City. Father Patrick McKenna (Ewan McGregor), the camerlengo, takes temporary control of the Vatican during the sede vacante period.
Meanwhile, at CERN, scientists Father Silvano Bentivoglio and Dr. Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer) create three canisters of antimatter. As Vetra goes to evaluate the experiment, she discovers that Silvano has been murdered, and one of the canisters was stolen. Shortly thereafter, four of the preferiti, the favored candidates to be elected pope, are kidnapped by a man claiming to represent the Illuminati. He sends the Vatican a warning, claiming he will murder each of the cardinals from 8 p.m. to midnight, when the stolen antimatter will explode and destroy the city, hidden somewhere within.
Unlike two other movies, there are only few product placements in Angels & Demons. And they can be divided in two categories – Sony and TV channels.
That is why we see Sony computers and displays in the first scene in CERN.
And when the events of the movie accelerate, we can see various TV channels broadcasting from Vatican City. These are Canal+, CNN, and Reuters.
And this is it for Angels & Demons. More product placements are waiting in Inferno.
Some time after helping the Vatican dealing with an antimatter threat, Harvard University professor Robert Langdon awakens in a hospital room in Florence, Italy, with no memory of what has transpired over the last few days, but being plagued with hellish visions. Dr. Sienna Brooks (Felicity Jones), the doctor tending to him, reveals that he is suffering from amnesia as a result of a bullet wound to the head. An orderly says the police are there to question Langdon but the officer turns out to be Vayentha, an assassin, who shoots the orderly while coming up the hallway. Brooks helps Langdon to escape, and they flee to her apartment.
Among Langdon’s personal belongings, Langdon and Brooks find a Faraday pointer, a miniature image projector with a modified version of Sandro Botticelli’s Map of Hell, which itself is based on Dante’s Inferno. They soon realize this is the first clue in a trail left by Bertrand Zobrist, a dangerously unstable villain who believed that rigorous measures were necessary to reduce the Earth’s growing population, and who committed suicide three days earlier after being chased by armed government agents.
When Robert Langdon wakes up in Sienna’s house, we can find various brands across her apartment. First of all we see Sony TV remote controls. And when Professor asks for coffee, Sienna goes to the kitchen where we spot tea brands like Greenfield and Twinings.
While Sienna is looking for some clothes for Robert, he decides to use her Apple MacBook to check his Google mail.
When Robert and Sienna decide to call to the consulate, we see that Sienna uses Sony smartphone. When they realize that they can trust no one, they start their investigation. First, they search for the information about Zobrist. Google, Wikipedia, and YouTube are very helpful even in the movies.
Later in the movie we see more Sony product placements – a TV set in Command Risk Consortium, a smartphone and a tablet used by Elizabeth Sinskey.
When Robert Langdon and Sienna Brooks try to escape from their enemies with the help of Christoph Bouchard, they make everyone believe they are going to fly to Switzerland via Swiss, but instead they take an Italo speed train to Venice.
When finally the truth is revealed and memory is restored, Robert and Elizabeth go to Istanbul to stop Sienna from unleashing the virus. Elizabeth shares Zobrist’s message with Robert. They watch it together on a Dell laptop.
In the final scene when Professor returns Dante’s mask to the museum, we can see the museum employee wearing the tag with the Florentine Civic Museums branding.
Unfortunately, there is no news about the future movies with Tom Hanks. And no news about any new books. Looking forward to new adventures of Professor Langdon.
I highly recommend you to visit Product Placement section of the website. You will find more amazing movie series analysed there.
Franklin D. Roosevelt es una estación de las líneas 1 y 9 del metro de París, situada en el VIII Distrito de la capital. La estación se encuentra en los alrededores de la Glorieta de los Campos Elíseos (Rond Point des Champs Elysées). En 2004 superaba los 12 millones de viajeros anuales.1
Inicialmente existían dos estaciones distintas : Marbeuf, la estación de la línea 1 inaugurada en 1900 y Rond Point des Champs Elysées, la estación de la línea 9, puesta en marcha en 1923. Esto explica porque dos de los accesos de la estación requieren pasar por los andenes de la línea 1 para llegar a la línea 9.
El 6 de octubre de 1942 se puso en servicio un pasillo de enlace entre ambas estaciones, de forma que el nombre de ambas se cambió por Marbeuf - Rond Point des Champs-Élysées.
Al acabar la Segunda Guerra Mundial la estación pasó a llamarse Franklin D. Roosevelt debido a que la cercana avenida Victor-Emmanuel III había sido renombrada como avenida Franklin D. Roosevelt. Se sustituía así el nombre de un jefe de Estado de un país enemigo durante el conflicto, Italia, por el de un jefe de Estado de un país aliado de Francia como había sido Estados Unidos.
Se compone de dos andenes laterales de 90 metros de longitud, situados bajo la avenida de los Campos Elíseos a la altura del cruce con la calle Marbeuf, y de dos vías.
Durante mucho tiempo, más de 60 años, la estación lució uno de los diseños más característicos de la red basándose en un estilo que estuvo en voga en la década de los 50 y de los 60. La idea de base consistía en revestir las estaciones con diversos materiales para alejarse así del sobrio diseño clásico. En Franklin D. Roosevelt el estilo fue llevado aún más allá usando una técnica de manipulación del vidrio llamada gemmail dando lugar a auténticas vidrieras modernas. Tonos verdes y anaranjados, bancos empotrados y señalización en relieve eran otras de las características de la estación.
En 2010, y dentro del plano de renovación del metro parisino puesto en marcha por la RATP en los años 2000, el revestimiento ha sido suprimido. Se prevé que sea sustituido por el funcional pero más anodino azulejo blanco biselado. La reforma ha supuesto también la instalación de puertas de andén como sucede en todas las estaciones de la línea 1.
Ejemplo de vitrina publicitaria existente en el año 2008.
Se compone de dos andenes laterales de 75 metros de longitud, situados bajo la Avenida Montaigne a la salida de la Glorieta de los Campos Elíseos, y de dos vías.
Fue la primera estación de la red, en 1952, en ser renovada según el estilo carrossage. En él se empleaba diversos materiales para revestir los clásicos azulejos blancos del metro parisino.
Durante mucho tiempo su publicidad se limitó a curiosas vitrinas publicitarias, donde la publicidad no aparecía en paneles diseñados a tal efecto sino que se usaban pequeñas vitrinas donde se mostraba el producto que se pretendía publicitar indicando donde podía ser adquirido.
El amarillo, presente en los muchos asientos de tipo Motte y en los marcos de las vitrinas, es el tono predominante en la estación.
Como en la estación de la línea 1, la señalización aparece en relieve usando en este caso un color dorado.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Metro station, a tribute to the former US President
Franklin D. Roosevelt Metro station boasts a contemporary decor that pays homage to its namesake, the revered US President who commanded Allied troops during World War II. Following a complete renovation in 2011, the station’s aesthetic is very international, reflecting its proximity to the Rond-Point des Champs-Elysées, one of Paris’s most iconic tourist destinations, and serves as a tribute to the United States.
General view of the station
Modernity is a central theme, evident in the station’s metal ceiling lamps adorned with intricate perforations that illuminate the platforms. The black and yellow color scheme of the tiles adorning the walls and vaulted ceiling further accentuates the contemporary ambiance.
The seating arrangements, designed to complement the modern aesthetic, offer a choice between two styles. Dark grey metal bucket-style seats exude contemporary sophistication, while standard-shaped yellow seats add a vibrant pop of color to the space.
Lastly, adding a dynamic touch, five touch-screen displays along the platforms accommodate temporary advertising campaigns, infusing the station with a sense of versatility and innovation.
Franklin D. Roosevelt Metro Station on Line 1
Franklin D. Roosevelt Metro station is situated on Line 1, the very first line of the Paris Metro system inaugurated for the Exhibition Universelle of 1900.
Yellow and Black colour scheme and touch-screen
Today, the station operates as a fully automated system, devoid of a driver, with glass safety screens effectively isolating the platforms from the rails, ensuring passenger safety.
Tema anterior
1/8th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division
3./Grenadier-Regiment 919, 709. Infanterie Division
Royal Navy Commandos preparing to demolish beach obstacles © IWM (A 23992)
A Sherman Firefly tank coming ashore on 7 June 1944 © IWM (B 5130)
An inflatable 3-ton lorry © IWM (H 42530)
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